Artistry – Day 934

Posted on June 3, 2021June 18, 2021 by Lisa Weikel Leave a comment

Sunset Parfait 1 – Photo: L. Weikel

Artistry

I spoke in my post yesterday about the awe-inspiring artistry that unfolded before my eyes yesterday as Spartacus and I walked off our adrenaline. It was as if Pachamama (the Creative Essence known as Mother Earth) was determined to reward me for maintaining my cool in the midst of a volatile situation. She wooed me with her ever-changing cloud formations, which was by the two Red-tailed Hawks that screeched at me along the way. The clouds, though…

It’s hard to convey how the clouds, mere pockets of water vapor shape-shifted and held aloft by unique atmospheric conditions could take my breath away. But they did.

Tonight I’m posting the photos of the last portion of yesterday’s walk because I need to share them with you. They are too beautiful for me to just shrug off and forget about.

Another factor, as you can see, is that they appear so drastically different than the earlier photos; it’s rather astonishing that they were all taken within minutes of each other.

Merging – Photo: L. Weikel

Glad I Waited

I’m glad I waited to post them. Today’s weather mostly sported a blanket of overcast very high above, so I have to admit, the joy factor just wasn’t emanating from the sky as it had yesterday. And it was tangible.

There’s so much rancor and division everywhere we look. I feel like we all need to grab the wonder of being alive right now wherever we can find it.

For instance, today I took a walk with a dear friend. I drove to her home and when I stepped out of my car, I literally became mesmerized by the sound of the cicadas filling the trees surrounding her home. She only lives three miles from my house, but the abundance of the surrounding forest has apparently encouraged an immense horde of the creatures to burrow up and out of their 17 year homes. The ‘guys’ are just singing their hearts out to woo their girls.

I wonder why the forest around High Rocks isn’t whirring in this manner. We’re so close – and yet the aural proof of their emergence is drastically different. Regardless of ‘why,’ the fact remains that I was transfixed when their other-worldly hum engulfed my senses.

I recorded them, but it the recording didn’t do them justice. Maybe I’ll try my hand at recalling how to post things on my YouTube account and at least post what I have. But it pales in comparison.

I’m going to need to return to that forest setting soon just to sit with them. Their unique artistry calls to me.

Sunset Parfait 2 (No filter!) – Photo: L. Weikel

(T-177)

Wind Goddess – Day 622

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Lisa Weikel Leave a comment

Wind Goddess from afar – Photo: L. Weikel

Wind Goddess

I had a really hard time focusing today. I’m not quite sure what it was. It was hot out – and muggy – but it wasn’t nearly as oppressive today as it was last week. As indolent as we felt, Karl and I struggled to finally drag ourselves out for a walk this evening, but didn’t actually manage to get ourselves out the door until a bit later than usual. I’m so glad we went when we did, though, because we encountered this fabulous Wind Goddess along the way.

Doesn’t she look like she’s flying across the sky, long hair streaming behind her? I think she was trying to cool things off a little bit as the sun sank below the horizon. But maybe the cooling off was more metaphorical than literal?

This month is turning out to be as volatile as both the astrology and numerology would have us expect. Yes, the roadmaps are all pointing to the same thing: dramatic upheaval and a resurgence of the virus, as the alignments that were occurring when the Coronavirus started spreading here in the U.S. are actually reoccurring, bringing the lessons learned (and not learned) home to roost. Believe it or not, this is probably the calm before the storm.

Expand My Horizons

I’ve been trying my best lately to skirt the massive elephants in the room. Let me tell you, that is not an easy task.

It’s hard not to talk about everything that’s happening before our eyes. The pandemic, the social justice and Black Lives Matter movements, the deployment of secret police by our national government in an effort to create photo-ops for campaign material, the use of tear gas by these armed nationals on our own fellow citizens. The list is far longer than this, as I know you are well aware.

Given the difficulty I’m finding in talking about other things, it’s become clear to me that I need to expand my horizons. I just re-read that sentence and had to chuckle at myself. Here I am, trying to maintain what essentially comes down to a self-quarantine (or close to it) and I’m musing about expanding my horizons. How oxymoronic is that?

I need to sign off now and read my book. Sometimes, we all need to just escape for a while.

Perhaps instead of cooler weather the Wind Goddess is bringing in some new ideas and musings for me to explore. Let’s hope.

Photo: L. Weikel

(T-489)

Blown Away – Day 606

Posted on July 10, 2020July 10, 2020 by Lisa Weikel 2 Comments

Visible Breath of the Wind – Photo: L. Weikel

Blown Away

Karl and I took a walk early this evening and noticed that the clouds seemed particularly expressive. Not in the massive, billowy, rather threatening way the thunderheads have been of late. The clouds today were of a much more playful nature, some even bordering on the whimsical. And then…I was blown away.

I didn’t realize I was going to have such a reaction when I took the photo. In fact, there’s a reason I speak in the first-person singular, above, and that’s because Karl will only be seeing the photo that just blew me away when he reads this post tomorrow morning.

Fodder For the Blog

Karl’s gotten used to the fact that our walks are the saving grace of my 1111 devotion. (Yeah…remember that? Can you believe I’m at 606 with only 505 left to write?) Actually, it’s not so much our walks per se that are the inspiration for a lot of my posts. It’s the photos I take along the way. The photos capture the inspiration that Mother Earth and, to be fair, equally or even more often Father Sky, provide. They are the Creative Team that actually make my posts possible. But you knew that.

As a result, I’m always passing Spartacus’s leash to Karl to hold while I capture moments in my iPhone like fireflies in a jar. Only the photos are better since I don’t have to poke holes in the top of my iPhone and, better yet, the photos don’t end up belly up the next morning.

But they do sometimes yield surprises. There have been many photos that revealed faces or figures that I only saw long after I got home, that ended up inspiring posts.

Spiral – Photo: L. Weikel

Well, as I mentioned, tonight’s clouds seemed especially playful and light. Like this spiral: long and drawn out, stretching across the sky in a straight line – but most definitely a spiral. It’s fascinating to contemplate the winds aloft that created such a cloud.

The photo at the top of this post reminded me of breath made visible as it’s blown across the sky.

Chills

And then there’s this photo, below. Wow. I took it simply because the shapes looked weird to me. I walked into a field to capture the full effect because I didn’t want telephone wires in the foreground. Karl half grumbled that he’d have to do a ‘tick check’ on me because of my venture into the tall grass just to take a shot of more clouds.

But what’s particularly fascinating to me is that I did not actually ‘See’ what this photo now seems to broadcast so obviously. Maybe I’m tired and seeing what I want to see. It’s possible, I suppose. But the magic of this photo popped out at me tonight when I went to send it from my phone to my computer. It gave me chills when I saw it. And the magic turned into the subject of this post.

I was blown away – not unlike when the Easter egg ‘happened.’

See for yourself and make your own decision:

Karl Cloud – Photo: L. Weikel

Best Easter Egg Ever – Photo: L. Weikel

Thanks, Karl, my son. Love you. Miss you.

(T-505)

Chill Out – Day 599

Posted on July 3, 2020July 3, 2020 by Lisa Weikel Leave a comment

Old Man In Repose Among the Clouds – Photo: L. Weikel

Chill Out

Ha ha – I’m undoubtedly dating myself with the title to this post. Meh – that’s ok. There could be a lot worse phrases from my youth that I could proffer at this moment. “Chill out,” seems to be one of the most benign.

All the signs are here. We’re receiving a message. Are we listening?

Even the dramatic change we’re experiencing in the weather appears to be making a statement. (Of course, I’m speaking for eastern Pennsylvania, but I’m pretty sure many other places are getting a similar message.) It was oppressively hot today. And if the Weather Channel is worth its salt, we apparently have many more days ahead of us, all in a row, to practice our ability to remain calm, cool, and collected in the midst of one shit storm after another.

Even Walking Was Rough

We put off walking until the last possible moment this evening. And even then the heat took a toll on all of us. Spartacus panted the whole way and we only did our two mile jaunt.

Meanwhile, Sheila’s been sitting out on our walks for several days now, only managing to stroll up the road a piece and back again. Just enough to get her system moving enough to qualify as a ‘constitutional.’